CHANGE: Cultivating, Harvesting, & Advocating a New Growth Exchange

A FREE MCbiz Workshop sponsored by Kudzu.com and Snell & Wilmer L.L.P. Law Office

Phoenix, AZ – Arizona’s 461,459 small businesses provide economic opportunities to diverse groups of people and bring innovative products and services to the local marketplace. *

“Small businesses are the movers and shakers in every economy in the United States, and it is no different in Maricopa County,” said Andres Chagolla, Manager of MCbiz-Maricopa County’s Small Business Enterprise Program. Change is affecting all sectors of the economy and the small business community continues to benefit the local economy.

“Small business owners and entrepreneurs will benefit from the CHANGE Workshop by learning to adapt their bottom lines in the current economy, exchange key information to spurt growth and they will be given another opportunity to network – all of this at NO COST,” further exclaimed, Chagolla.

Join MCbiz on 1/30/2009 at the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors’ Auditorium (205 W. Jefferson off of 2^nd Ave and Jefferson) from 8:00am-12:30pm with no cost parking at the open parking lot off of Madison and 6^th Avenue in downtown Phoenix.

There are a host of companies providing valuable information to the small business community, including The Boeing Companies. “Tapping the skills and technologies available within the community of small and diverse businesses is vital,” noted Elaine Clemens-Solomon, The Boeing Companies’ Supplier Diversity Focal. Her presentation will provide the small business community with the tools and resources to identify potential opportunities to do business with Boeing.

Additional key presenters include:
Prudential – Buy-Sell Arrangements for Closely Held Businesses – Gil Valadez – A buy-sell agreement is a written contract either between a business and its owners or between the owners themselves.  This presentation will provide you with a short overview of buy-sell arrangements and how they can be funded.

Urias Communications – Obama-Style Marketing – Tapping the Unprecedented Potential of the Millennium Markets -Lisa Urias – In today’s marketplace, many remain focused on existing target markets and fail to spend time and energy on the new burgeoning millennium markets. The Obama-campaign has been touted throughout the advertising industry for their incredibly savvy marketing, including being named, “Advertiser of the Year” by Ad-Age. What were some of the strategies involved in this campaign? Many of those strategies were a clear focus on multicultural or niche markets. Lisa Urias of Urias Communications will address the makeup of these new markets and how to reach them through new forms of communications such as viral campaigns and grassroots outreach.

Snell & Wilmer – FMLA updates & Employer Sanctions Law – Fidelis Garcia & Manuel Cairo  –  Learn about the updates to the Family Medical Leave Act and the Employer Sanctions Law.

Gates to HR  - Retention Strategies for Keeping Quality Employees – Lesley Gates – A common employer question is “How do we keep talent from leaving or jumping to our competitors?” Never before has it been so critical for businesses to focus on strategies for keeping good employees. True solutions require a change in management’s attitudes and behaviors toward employees and we’ll review a number of options to create a retention plan for reducing employee turnover.

Club E Network/e-Factory – “Entrepreneurs Are the Bailout!” – Peter Burns III -Taking advantage of little known but highly effective measures, like the SBA Express Loan and Patriot Express Loan, new small cap businesses can be effectively launched. By collaborating with fellow entrepreneurs with membership organizations like Club E and sharing space with like-minded and complementary business people in environments like the eFactory, these new businesses have a much higher degree of success than traditional start-ups.

Andres Chagolla, Manager of MCbiz- Maricopa County’s Small Business Enterprise Program will discuss how to do business with the County. “In today’s economy, the exchange of free and valuable information progressively promotes the growth of small firms, and I hope that the business community will join MCbiz and the host of presenters, learning to Cultivate, Harvest, & Advocate a New Growth Exchange in the existing economy,” said Chagolla. Prizes will be awarded at this FREE workshop, such as an IPOD Shuffle and books.

Network at NO COST on 1/30/2009 and please RSVP at achagolla@mail.maricopa.gov.

MCbiz and partner presenters offer a variety of workshops to assist small businesses to grow and become more competitive.  For more information about the Maricopa County Small Business Enterprise Program visit www.maricopa.gov/mcbiz.

* Extracted from the SBA’s Office of Advocacy’s Profile of Arizona – The number of small businesses is the number of small employers plus the number of nonemployers in 2005 (note that a small business is defined here as one with fewer than 500 employers).

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